Update from Iraq – The News You Don’t Necessarily See in the Newspaper

The most important news this week continues to be the provincial elections. Stories from around the country share a similar theme: no significant violence, participation more than doubled on average, Iraqis in charge of an Iraqi process worked.

Our provincial reconstruction team (PRT) assisted Anbar civil society organizations (CSOs) and educational entities to educate their members about civic responsibilities and the election process. Designed in two phases, the project first utilized the Al-Salam Organization of Baghdad to conduct “train the trainers” sessions for members of 14 CSOs from throughout Anbar. The trainers, funded by USAID with a CSCM grant, used the same materials developed by UNOPS and IHEC for similar election activities throughout the country, ensuring a consistent message across the country. In the second phase, these trainers returned to teach their home communities. The project exceeded expectations by reaching over 35,000 Anbaris.

The Sunnis boycotted the previous (2005) election so the Shi’a dominated Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) won a clear majority. This election the Sunnis decided to play. According to a preliminary tally, Saleh Mutlaq’s Iraqi National Project Alliance (INPA) pulled off a first-place win in the provincial election this week, capturing 17.6 percent of the vote. The win was mildly surprising as most observers regarded the election as a one-on-one match-up between Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha’s Iraq Awakening Conference (MSI), and the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP). The Awakening, with its coalition partner, came in second with 17.1 percent of the vote, edging out the IIP, which lagged in third-place showing with 15.9 percent. The IIP was in a coalition with a local “tribal” party led by Sheikh Amer Al-Assafi, head of the Duleimi tribal confederation. The rest of the vote was shared among smaller parties, including Jamal Al-Karbuli’s National Movement for Reform and Development and Ayad Allawi’s Iraqi National List. In all at least nine parties appear poised to win some representation on the new provincial council. The council will elect the governor.

This means the new provincial government will be formed by a coalition of several parties, likely brokered by Saleh Al-Mutlaq. Sheikh Ahmed told us twice this week that he is amenable to coalition-building, seeing that an antidote to, in his words, “the one-party control” of the Provincial Council by the IIP since 2005. Soundings with our IIP contacts also revealed their desire for government-by-coalition. Nonetheless, Ahmed had long thought that it would be he who would form the governing coalition, an initiative that apparently now passes to Saleh Al-Mutlaq. The close showings between the INPA and the Awakening draws attention to the as-yet tabulated “special needs voting” (police, hospital workers, e.g.) that took place on January 28. The gap between the two top finalists may close after those results are made known.

The darker side of tribal politics, however, came to the fore this week when Ahmed made several threatening utterances in the press directed at the IIP for allegedly orchestrating a vote-counting fraud to tip the election in the IIP’s favor. He accused the Anbar Governorate Elections Officer Khaled Rajab of willfully misrepresenting the vote totals as reported to IHEC, and said that he would not be able to protect Khaled from physical harm if “the people” took matters into their own hands. Several Anbaris, including Gov. Ma’amoun, complained to us about Ahmed’s behavior, suggesting that although Ahmed is a political leader, he does not have a democratic spirit. In American terms “he does not play well with others.”

While I have no connection to anyone in the story, to see a positive news story on military service in Iraq check out http://www.wickedlocal.com/hingham/news/lifestyle/x1452245715

The latest newsletter from MNF-I is available at https://webmail.us.army.mil/attach/090207_twii.pdf?sid=&mbox=INBOX&uid=2588&number=9&filename=090207_twii.pdf. One story in that newsletter caught my attention. In 2005 I tried to get permission to enter a 6th century monastery that was on the south end of Mosul’s Marez base. The rules at that time prohibited any entrance and my request was denied. I see in this newsletter that a team of soldiers toured the monastery.

In Qatar I met an Air Force Chaplain on R&R from Afghanistan. His intriguing photo collection of ~ 800 pictures can be viewed at http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=AF68752C67F&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and the 10th anniversary of being married to my best friend, Philese. Ten years we talked about this day, how we knew that we would succeed in our marriage despite the gloomy statistics on remarriages. We planned our 10th anniversary ten years in advance but those plans are on hold. Our recreation office is sponsoring a 10km fun run around the base. So I am celebrating my 10th anniversary by running 10k for ten years. I am not particularly happy this weekend. I still wish you all a happy Valentine’s Day with your loved ones.